On the Edge
by Winter Guthri
Summary: Children of the city gather together to become the new generation of runners. Rated T for language and scary stuff.
1. Chapter 1

I can't sleep. I dangle my feet out of the open window of my bedroom, staring at the full moon. A small creak comes from the hallway,and I make a mad dash for bed, closing my eyes just before my mother opens the door. She closes the window and gives me a kiss on the forehead. "Laylee, qiut sitting on the windowsill, it's dangerous." She whispers, and I tense up. So much for a secret. A wave of exhaustion rolls over me, and I drift off to sleep, the clock reading 12:32am.

I dream I am locked in a room made entirely of glass, and people I do not see are throwing rocks at me, small and large. Big portions of the room shatter, while others make incessant tapping noises. Incessant… tapping…

2:07am. I am startled awake by small stones hitting my now closed window. I wasn't expecting anyone. I open it up and loud-whisper down "What?"

I don't need to loud-whisper. In a moment someone climbed up the drain pipe and hopped on the ledge. "Keep your voice down. Are you Kaylee Connor?"

"Yeah," I mumbled while rubbing sleep from my eyes.

"Mother's name?" Was this boy some kind of stalker?

"Faith." I blurted before I had the mind to come up with a fake name.

"My name is Ryan. Come with me."

I plant my feet on the ground and raise my eyebrow, though he probably can't see me that well. "And how do you expect me to get down?"

Ryan dissapeared for a moment as he jumped up to the top ledge of the roof. He stood in a skateboard stance and began sliding down the smooth shingles. once almost off the edge, Ryan gave a leap and landed swiftly on the grass. "Like that."

"Ummm..." I climbed onto the ledge, and gripped the drain pipe for dear life, shimmying down most un-gracefully. Ryan laughed softly. I could see him better in the streetlights. He had semi-long chocolate brown hair and deep blue eyes. "Where exactly are we going?"

"The House," Oooooh, mysterious.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't know why, but I follow Ryan. Something about him makes you want to trust him. I am dressed for the journey, in sofees, a tee-shirt, and flat-footed sneakers from my window-sitting expedition.

Ryan starts out at a medium jog, jumping lightly over small obstacles and looking over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure I can keep up. No sweat. I am the fastest runner on the track team at my school, and I am told I have incredible stamina. As for the jumping, well, everyone can do that.

"Are we going to keep this up all night, or do something a little more challenging?" I tease.

"Alright, if you want to pick up the pace, I will." Ryan smirks and takes off at the verge of a sprint until I am racing to keep up with him. He levers himself off of walls and easily leaps over piles of raw material as if it were nothing.

He doesn't let up an inch until we reach the abandoned construction site. I can see a dim light coming from a makeshift building in the middle of the lot.

I'm over here dying for oxygen, and Ryan hasn't even broke a sweat! "What the hell!"

"That's the life of a runner, Lay. Get used to it."


	3. Chapter 3

Ryan leads me closer to the building and opens the door. In the medium-sized room are about fifteen other kids, all around my age, sitting on blankets in the floor or beat-up couches, playing cards or talking in groups.

A girl with dirty blond hair pulled back into a messy braid glares at Ryan. Everyone turns their eyes on me. "Who's she?" The blonde asks menacingly, jumping up from her game of blackjack.

"Chill out, Pick. This is Laylee. Laylee Connor." Ryan meets her stare equally. Pick looks me up and down, and I am suddenly conscious of my bedhead.

"There are a lot of 'Connor's in this town. Are you sure this is the one?" Pick poked a thin finger in the middle of my chest and put her face an inch from mine. "You Faith's daughter?"

"Yeah, I am." I push her hand away.

Ryan takes his place on the floor and everyone makes a circle around him. "C'mere, Lay." he pats the ground next to him.

"Why do keep calling me 'Lay'?"

"We have to keep names short and sweet around here. Sit" I do. "You already know Pick and myself. This is Mai, Taz, Mac, Liz, Eric, Leigh, Bree, Ace, Blade, and Cam. Jess and Gabe are out on a job."

"What sort of job?"

"Do you know what a 'runner' is, Lay?"


	4. Chapter 4

Runners. The term had crossed my mind once or twice. "Like a messenger?"

"Kind of," Said Leigh, a thin girl with thin red hair and wire-rimmed glasses. "Have you ever gotten a letter, or an e-mail?"

"Yeah, why?" I yawned.

"Have you noticed the little insignia at the bottom?" Leigh asked, holding up a ratty piece of paper with a hand-drawn insignia on it.

"It's like, a Blues badge or something." piped up Blade, flipping his dark hair out from over his eyes.

"This thing means the message has been inspected and censored." Pick scowled, cracking her knuckles.

"So a Runner's job is to deliver messages, uncensored. So people can get some real information in this God-forsaken city." Ryan concluded.

"But what does my mother have to do with all of this?" I asked. Nothing seemed to tie together.

"Your mother... Was one of the best runners of all," Blade said quietly, staring at one of the many tattoos on his arm. "Faith Connor is a legend."


	5. Chapter 5

I don't breathe. I don't blink. My mother... A runner?

"Laaaaaay?" Ryan waves his hand in front of my face.

I snap out of it. "That's impossible! You have the wrong person, I'm sorry for wasting your night." I stand up and rush to the door. Before I can touch the knob, the door swings open and two winded kids bump into me. I fall on my butt painfully.

"Jazz, Gabe!" Ryan grabs my hand and lifts me effortlessly.

"We lost 'em." Jazz panted. Still pumped full of adrenalin, she levered over one of the couches, threw a few fake punches, and whipped a police hand pistol out from behind her. "Got this puppy too." Then she tossed it to Eric. He shied away and covered his face.

"Chill out. it's not loaded." Gabe sighed, plopping on the couch and shuffling a deck of cards. "Who's she? She Faith's?"

"Yep." Ryan turned to me. "But she's still not convinced." He strolled down a short, dark hallway and came back with an old picture. An old picture of my mother. She had a tattoo on her right arm like all of the runners in the room. A messenger bag rested on her shoulder and her hair looked like it had been hacked off by a pair of old scissors. "But... maybe we got the wrong person."


	6. Chapter 6

It's inevitable. That is my mother. "No, that's me. So what'as the deal? So, my mom was a runner?"

"So..." Ryan builds up a dramatic pause. "We need your help. We wanna know the old ways, ya know? So far we've had to build this whole organization from scratch. And I thought you might know something that could be of use. Plus, an extra pair of hands couldn't hurt."

"So basically your recruiting me?" I say, jutting out my hip.

"You actually want to be a runner?" Mai asks, bewildered at my acceptance.

"Hey, I'm always one to help!" I smile. Ryan slaps me on the back and laughs. The rest of the bunch chatters idly.

Ace sits up straight and hushes everyone. "You know what this means, don't you?" He implores, concerned.

"Of course I do. It's gonna be hard work, and dangerous."

"Well, that's part of it. We're all orphans, so we don't have to worry about this,"

"Ace, what are you talking about?"

"If you want to be a runner, you're going to have to leave home."


End file.
